{"id":2117,"date":"2026-10-04T00:04:16","date_gmt":"2026-10-03T19:04:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=2117"},"modified":"2026-10-04T00:04:16","modified_gmt":"2026-10-03T19:04:16","slug":"ukraine-will-hit-russian-refineries-in-response-to-moscows-new-doctrine-of-airstrikes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=2117","title":{"rendered":"Ukraine will hit Russian refineries in response to Moscow’s ‘new doctrine’ of airstrikes"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Ukraine will double down on attacking Russian oil refineries in response to a new policy of airstrikes by Moscow designed to force people to abandon Kyiv and other cities, but will not target civilians, President Volodymyr Zelensky said.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ukrainian intelligence has obtained documents showing \u200bthat Russian leader Vladimir Putin had issued a \u201cnew doctrine\u201d of military attacks on a much broader range of civilian targets ahead of this winter, Zelensky said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe saw documents and we know that they allow them \u200cattack infrastructure\u2026 logistics\u2026 roads, schools, hospitals, to pressure people to leave the capital, leave different cities,\u201d Zelensky said. \u201cThis is the goal of the operation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Driving the shift in policy, Zelensky said, was Putin\u2019s desire to appear strong at a time when his military was losing ground in a key frontline region and sustaining higher levels of casualties.<\/p>\n

The Kremlin was not available to comment on Saturday. But in a statement urging foreign nationals to leave Kyiv, the Russian Foreign Ministry said Moscow would continue to systematically hit targets in what it said were retaliatory strikes for Ukrainian attacks on Russia in recent months.<\/p>\n

Both \u200bsides deny deliberately targeting civilians.<\/p>\n

<\/a>COUNTEROFFENSIVE IN DONBAS<\/h3>\n

Zelensky said an ongoing Ukrainian counteroffensive, code-named \u201cVivaldi\u201d, had recaptured around 140sq km (54sq miles) of Ukraine\u2019s eastern Donbas region, which Russia has said it must control in its entirety as a \u200bcondition for any peace deal.<\/p>\n

In recent weeks, US President Donald Trump\u2019s administration has sought to revive talks to end the four-year-old conflict \u2014 Europe\u2019s bloodiest since World War Two.<\/p>\n

The US leader last month urged \u2060Ukraine to refrain from hitting Russian oil installations, saying that was sending global diesel prices surging.<\/p>\n

But Zelensky, speaking as air raid sirens blared outside the gilded halls of the presidential offices, said he had received no indications from Russia that Putin was \u200binterested in peace talks, or discussing a ceasefire on energy infrastructure.<\/p>\n

Over the past week, the Ukrainian capital has come under persistent attack by Russian drones and missiles targeting energy and telecoms assets, road and rail infrastructure. For the first time, Russia has targeted the \u200bbridges across the Dnipro river connecting east and west Kyiv.<\/p>\n

Zelensky said Ukraine would respond to the change in tactics by Moscow, but would not respond in kind by targeting civilian infrastructure indiscriminately.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to respond in any way (we can). With their attacks on our energy, we have to respond on their energy. First of all, oil refiners: what gives money to them for this war,\u201d Zelensky said in English. \u201cBut we will not respond, of course, just like them, on any civilian objects.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/a>SUPPORT FROM EUROPE<\/h3>\n

After the Trump administration invited Putin to attend a G20 summit in Miami in December \u200band discussed business deals with Russian envoys, Zelensky urged Washington not to normalise relations with Russia before ensuring a return to peace.<\/p>\n

Zelensky said he would be happy to meet Putin for peace talks at the G20, but he warned the US not to \u200bbelieve in \u201cillusions\u201d that Russia would end hostilities if it gained control of Donbas.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not fair just to normalise,\u201d said Zelensky, dressed in his trademark black T-shirt and military-style jacket. Any resumption of economic and diplomatic ties with the West had to be in return for peace, \u200che said: \u201cBecause peace \u2060is more important than any kind of economy.\u201d<\/p>\n

While the US has proposed a resumption of trilateral talks in the coming weeks in the UAE, Zelensky noted that an exact date and location for the technical-level conversations had not been set.<\/p>\n

Ukrainian officials warn that Russia has stockpiled hundreds of ballistic missiles ahead of an expected winter onslaught against electricity and water infrastructure. Last winter, the worst of the war, Russian strikes left swathes of the country without electricity and heating for days at a time.<\/p>\n

Since the summer, Moscow has also begun launching dozens of fast and relatively cheap jet-powered Shahed drones a day at Ukraine, whose air defences have struggled as its previous generation of interceptor drones were too slow to catch them.<\/p>\n

Zelensky said Ukraine had been forced to rely heavily on \u200bits fighter aircraft \u2014 F-16s and MiGs \u2014 to down around 60% of \u200bthe Russian jet-powered drones, but supplies of 20 mm \u2060ammunition for the planes were running low.<\/p>\n

Kyiv was urgently working on other solutions \u2014 including boosting its jamming capabilities, he said. In the second half of October, it would receive the first shipment of small, cheap air defence missiles capable of hitting the new Shaheds.<\/p>\n

Last week, Zelensky said Ukraine was developing five models of new interceptor drones capable of downing the jet Shaheds. Fresh from \u200ba meeting with his defence chiefs, he said tests on two of those models showed a modest success rate of around 30%.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll have to scale it,\u201d he said. \u201cI hope that with all \u200bthese things, with all these elements, \u2060we\u2019ll find a way.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/a>BALLISTIC THREAT<\/h3>\n

Ukraine announced the first combat use this week of its own domestically made ballistic missile \u2014 the FP-7, which has a range of around 250 km (155 miles).<\/p>\n

Zelensky said he had called the manufacturer Fire Point to pressure executives to finish quickly a longer-range model, the FP-9, which the company has said could hit Moscow.<\/p>\n

\u201cI said to them, where is my FP-9?\u201d said Zelensky, with a grin. \u201cWe need the FP-9. And the FP-9 will be (ready) this autumn, I\u2019m sure.\u201d<\/p>\n

Zelensky said a recent spate of Russian drone incursions and hybrid \u2060attacks in Europe were \u200ban effort to intimidate European populations and to divide support for Ukraine.<\/p>\n

Some European leaders were starting to understand this, he said, and toughen their position.<\/p>\n

Russia \u200bsays such accusations are baseless and the result of anti-Russian hysteria.<\/p>\n

After talks with European officials in Brussels this week, Ukraine had found funding to proceed with orders for drones that it needs to keep fighting at the start of 2027, Zelensky said.<\/p>\n

Ukrainian officials had worked on a plan with European partners to \u200bplug a $27 billion hole in Kyiv\u2019s defence budget this year.<\/p>\n

The plans involve a combination of the reallocation of Ukraine\u2019s own budget resources, bilateral assistance and using \u201cmoney credits\u201d from next year\u2019s portion of a \u20ac90 billion EU loan, Zelensky said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ukraine will double down on attacking Russian oil refineries in response to a new policy of airstrikes by Moscow designed to force people to abandon Kyiv and other cities, but will not target civilians, President Volodymyr Zelensky said. Ukrainian intelligence has obtained documents showing \u200bthat Russian leader Vladimir Putin had issued a \u201cnew doctrine\u201d of military attacks on a much broader range of civilian targets ahead of this winter, Zelensky said. \u201cWe saw documents and we know that they allow them \u200cattack infrastructure\u2026 logistics\u2026 roads, schools, hospitals, to pressure people…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2117","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-english"],"gutentor_comment":0,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2117","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2117"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2117\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2117"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2117"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2117"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}